Synopsis
The year is 1938, and Mahatma Gandhi's groundbreaking philosophies are sweeping across India, but 8-year-old Chuyia, newly widowed, must go to live with other outcast widows on an ashram. Her presence transforms the ashram as she befriends two of her compatriots.
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Cast
- Lisa RayKalyani
- SaralaChuyia
- John AbrahamNarayan
- Seema BiswasShakuntala
- Waheeda RehmanBhagavati, Narayan's Mother
- Vinay PathakRabindra
- Rishma Malik ScottSnehalata
- ManoramaMadhumati
- Raghubir YadavGulabi
- Gerson Da CunhaSeth Dwarkanath
Recommendations
- 100
Village Voice
This work of gorgeous fury, about the virtual imprisonment of millions of Hindu widows in the years before independence, transforms Mehta's feminist rage into an eloquent testament to the hunger for freedom. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Exquisite storytelling, acting and visuals. - 90
Variety
Deftly balancing epic sociopolitical scope with intimate human emotions, all polished to a high technical gloss, Deepa Mehta's Water is a profoundly moving drama. - 90
The New York Times
An exquisite film about the institutionalized oppression of an entire class of women and the way patriarchal imperatives inform religious belief. - 80
L.A. Weekly
Hitches some of the most irresistible conventions of Hindi movie melodrama to an earnest agenda of social protest. - 80
Los Angeles Times
As beautiful as it is harrowing. - 75
ReelViews
The stunning Lisa Ray, a Bollywood exile, makes one of the most beautiful widows ever to grace the screen. Vidula Javalgekar gives a memorable turn as the infirm "Auntie." But the real find is Sarala, a Sri Lankan girl who memorized dialogue in a language she does not understand and delivers it with conviction. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mehta has created the perfect guide to this strange female world.
